What Are Brits Watching?: ‘Jonathan Creek’

What’s on: Jonathan Creek SpecialWhat is it: Jonathan Creek (Alan Davies) consults for a magician and in his free time acts as an amateur sleuth, using his talent for deductive reasoning to solve seemingly supernatural mysteries. The crimes seem absurd at first but then make complete sense when the viewer learns what happens through Davies’ deduction. In the one-off special, a wife finds her husband dead but by the time the authorities arrive, the body has vanished.Air-date: March 31, 2013 on BBC1; returning Fall 2013 (Season 1-4 is available on NetFlix/Amazon.com)Who’s watching: 8.75 million BritsWhy so popular: The Guardian describes the show as, “There is nothing quite like it: a detective story without a detective; more a howdunnit than a whodunnit.”American counterpart: USA Network’sPsychwhere the crime solver, who isn’t a detective either, uses his heightened observational skills.

Admittedly, this trailer is a little dated (2010) but it gives you a feel of what to expect in this detective-comedy-drama. We figured it would be interesting, especially if you plan to backtrack and watch the series from the beginning via DVD or Netflix. Okay, back to the trailer itself … the criminal phenomenons are a bit creepy but not too alarming with Davies’ dry delivery. Take a peek at the trailer below:

Let’s fast forward a bit and take a look at two clips from the latest special.

In the first clip, Jonathan gets a phone call from Absolutely Fabulous‘s Joanna Lumley herself. It ain’t Patsy calling but Rosalind, whose husband recently passed away but the body has gone missing, and she’s understandably distraught. To see what happens, you can watch the clip, here. Warning: Turn your volume down before pressing play; the ringer on the phone in the clip is painstakingly loud.

In the second clip, Creek’s unofficial partner Joey (Sheridan Smith) has a lead on a guy named “Brad” who might know something about the missing body. Davies takes the piss as she’s missing some vital information like his surname, where he’s from, his phone number or his address … she didn’t get “that far” as they were too busy shagging. Davies calls her out and her response is, “It was a very cold day.” This is the comedy part that we mentioned above. It’s a good giggle, you can watch the clip, here.

The show’s return even surprised the series creator David Renwick with him telling The Guardian, “We thought it was over when the BBC had issued this cellophane-wrapped definitive box set and then we upset it all with two more specials.”

Nope. It’s back!

Alan Davies sent out a tweet back in September, resulting in 589 retweets. Fans were ready for the return of Jonathan Creek:

New Jonathan Creek episode with @sheridansmith1 will shoot early in 2013